The Croatian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has issued an Ordinance for the creation of an Intersectoral Coordination Mechanism for the Control of Antimicrobial Resistance (ISKRA). ISKRA applies state-of-the-art methods of development of surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial use and promotion of rational usage of antimicrobials as agreed in the European Community.One of the tasks of ISKRA is to facilitate the rational usage of antimicrobials through national evidence based clinical practice guidelines. Multidisciplinary working groups have developed national clinical practice guidelines applying the AGREE methodology. The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MHSW) has invited representatives from professional societies and from relevant institutions to participate in the national clinical guideline programme. The programme, started as part of the Matra project, has become an integral part of the ISKRA activities in the future. The first four topics were selected and guidelines developed dealing with surgical prophylaxis, sore-throat, urinary tract infections and infections caused by MRSA.

ISKRA stands for Intersectoral Society for Antibiotic Resistance Control and is the intersectoral Coordination Mechanism as promoted by the EU.There are 10 nominated members from the Reference Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance, the MHSW, from the Medical Societies of Croatian Medical Assembly, such as Infectious Diseases, Microbiology, Clinical Pharmacology, General Practitioners, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management (MAFWM), Ministry of Science, Education and Sport (MDES), Croatian Health Insurance Institute. The tasks of ISKRA are to create the Croatian antibiotic resistance program by focusing on antibiotic resistance and the quality of care as on consumption of antibiotics; to report to the minister about the results of taken actions and to advise the minister on activities that have to be taken to survey antibacterial resistance and antibiotic consumption survey.ISKRA facilitates rational antibiotic usage through national evidence-based guidelines and initiates new activities in the field of AR.ISKRA strengthens the cooperation between MHSW & MAFWM & MSES regarding AR control and establishes good collaboration with the European Commission and the International institutions regarding AR control activities.